Richie James is back

After missing three games with a high ankle sprain, wide receiver Richie James returned and promptly made his presence known. He had five catches for 46 yards in the first half, drawing plenty of attention from the UAB secondary. He also did damage out of the Wildcat formation, taking two carries for 9 yards in the opening 30 minutes.

Still, James, on many occasions, did not look himself, with he and quarterback John Urzua not perfectly in-sync throughout the night.

"It was really all me. I was a little tired. You could tell it was my first game back," said James, who added that he has put on additional weight while recovering from his injury. "Made a lot of mental mistakes that I could correct. But I can better. It’s just the first game back."

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Richie James, who missed MTSU's last three games with a high ankle sprain, returned to action Saturday against UAB.
Erik Bacharach/DNJ

James' biggest miscue came late in the fourth quarter, when he dropped a ball on a third-and-7 that would have given MTSU a first down. Instead, MTSU had to punt with 5:09 left.

"Did some good things," Stockstill said of James, "but was inconsistent."

Though James returned, starting quarterback Brent Stockstill sat for a fifth straight game with a cracked sternum and broken collarbone.

Timely penalties hurting MTSU

To make matters worse, MTSU's penalties are coming at very inopportune moments.

On a fourth-and-8 midway through the first quarter, linebacker Darius Harris' late hit drew a flag, giving UAB a first down. The Blazers' drive would span another nine plays, culminating with a 23-yard touchdown run by Donnie Lee that knotted the score at 7.

On the ensuing kickoff, returner Desmond Anderson was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, pushing MTSU back to its 7. It was then pushed back to its 4 after a holding call against Lucas Hamilton.

With MTSU pinned deep, Urzua was sacked in the end zone for a safety.

"You can’t make those kinds of mistakes against a good team and expect to win," Stockstill said. "That’s what we did. Give UAB credit. They deserved to win. They played better than us."

Urzua throws two more interceptions

Urzua was not as accurate as last week's nearly flawless performance against FIU (in which he went 25-of-31 passing, one touchdown and no interceptions). Against UAB, he completed 23 of 42 passes for 268 yards, a touchdown and two crucial interceptions.

Urzua's second interception essentially sealed the game for UAB ― it came with about two minutes left and MTSU trailing by 2 ― and his first pick was extremely costly as well. With about six minutes left in the second quarter and MTSU at the UAB 6, he threw a back-shoulder pass intended for Patrick Smith that was picked by Darious Williams.

Urzua is up to eight interceptions and six touchdowns in four games this season. By comparison, Brent Stockstill threw 31 touchdowns and just seven interceptions in 10 games last year.

The Blue Raiders, who generated 394 yards of total offense, scored a touchdown on their opening drive of the game, but would not score another offensive touchdown the rest of the way.

"It's frustrating, when you come out and you're successful the first drive and you get stalled out," Urzua said. "I mean we were moving the ball well, the problem that we're having is we're not finishing drives, we're not scoring touchdowns, we're kicking a lot of field goals, so that will definitely be an emphasis."

Brad Anderson is heartbeat of the offense

By now, Anderson, a freshman and Huntsville native, has firmly established himself as capable of shouldering No. 1 running back responsibilities. But he's also emerged as a legitimate down-field threat.

Anderson had nine catches for 137 yards, including a 27-yard touchdown pass that gave MTSU a 7-0 lead. He also had 15 carries for 81 yards (5.4 yards per carry).

For as good a game as Anderson had, one blemish stands out: A dropped pass on a 3rd-and-3 late in the third quarter. Anderson was wide open, but turned his head to look downfield before dropping what would ave been a sure first-down pass.

"It's definitely a play that sticks out," Anderson said. "It's not a play I could dwell on, but it's definitely something that's going to make me improve myself, make sure I look in every catch. And it's definitely something that I feel like I could have helped the team do better. I feel like we could have won if I made that catch."

MTSU gets big plays from special teams

With 5:54 left in the second quarter, MTSU's Ruben Garnett blocked a punt and Kylan Stribling returned it 20 yards for a touchdown to give MTSU a 17-16 lead. Urzua had thrown an interception in the red zone to give UAB possession.

MTSU defensive back Kylan Stribling goes in for a touchdown after he had recovered a punt blocked by Ruben Garnett in a game at UAB on Oct. 14, 2017.(Photo: Brent Beerends/MTSU Athletics)

Canon Rooker hit all three of his field goals from 47, 46 and 41 yards . The 47-yarder was a career long. Rooker has hit 11 of 12 field goals this season.

"You’re not going to win games kicking field goals," Stockstill said. "You’ve got to score touchdowns and we couldn’t finish drives. We couldn’t knock it in. We had guys open and we missed them. We had catchable balls and we dropped them. Again, it just goes back to consistency. We weren’t consistent enough offensively to sustain drives."